Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

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Fletchette
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Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by Fletchette »

This is a 2 minute clip from a 10 minute flight 2 days ago (08/14/2017). It's recorded and uploaded to Youtube in 4k, but since it was late in the day the light level was a bit low, but not bad. You can watch in any resolution. I narrated it after the fact, and the zoom on the buck was done with software after the flight. Full screen is recommended.

I was standing on the driveway in front of my house about 1/4 mile (1/2 km) away, so during the clip I can't actually see the drone or where it's flying because of the hills and trees. I'm flying the drone by looking at the live-feed video on a 9.7" iPad attached to the remote controller.

I flew the Mavic Pro drone down behind the dam on my pond to check for damage after it overflowed from a heavy rainstorm, (5"-6" in a couple hours). I could have just drove the ATV back there to check, but this was a good excuse to use the drone.

About 1/2 way through the flight I decided to descend down through the trees into a small field behind the dam to get a better look at the back of the dam. Fortunately I'd mowed back there with the brush-hog about a week ago, or I'd never has seen him. The grass was 4-5 ft (1.5m) tall before mowing. At about 15' altitude I spun the drone and spotted a whitetail buck standing on the edge of the trees looking at the drone. He stood their for about a minute while I flew in a little closer, before he spooked. The drone was probably 40-50 feet away at the time. After uploading the video to my computer and watching it on the larger screen it turns out he was visible below the drone when it was flying over at about 150' altitude, but I didn't see him live until I dropped down lower.

It also turns out there were 3 does behind him in the woods that I never saw on the live feed. I looks like the does actually spooked first, then the buck followed.

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Re: Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by outrider »

nice video, thanks for sharing.. :D
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Re: Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by stancomputerhunter »

Pretty cool video. Just as in theHunter, the buck was scratching his side with his antlers, and nearby was an abandoned vehicle, rusting away. :)


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Fletchette
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Re: Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by Fletchette »

stancomputerhunter wrote:Pretty cool video. Just as in theHunter, the buck was scratching his side with his antlers, and nearby was an abandoned vehicle, rusting away. :)
My dump truck !!!.....Bought it from the DMV about 15 years ago when I built the dam. It's been trapped back there ever since the pond filled up.

The buck still had all it's velvet on. He needs to rub it off soon, bow season starts in 3 weeks. Rifle season isn't until Nov. 10 or so.
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Re: Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by InstinctiveArcher »

Interesting video. That looks like a really nice buck. It was kinda tough to tell for sure, but his left side looked like it had some palmation or something. Maybe it's just the way that the times lined up though. I hope you get him this fall.
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Hawkeye
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Re: Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by Hawkeye »

That's really awesome! That buck was staring right at the drone.
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Fletchette
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Re: Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by Fletchette »

Hawkeye wrote:That's really awesome! That buck was staring right at the drone.
Yeah, he was pretty fixated on it. It's hard to tell, but at the beginning of this clip, as the drone flies over the dam at about 150' looking down, it looks like the buck is actually looking up at it.
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gas56
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Re: Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by gas56 »

That's pretty cool. Though it looks like the buck is looking at the biggest damn dragonfly it has ever seen.
I guess that's how you can get close with a drone to take wildlife videos, just call it "Fletchettes, Wild Missouri".
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Re: Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by Radamus »

Pretty awesome! Man, that's a really stable platform too
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Re: Whitetail buck encounter while flying drone.

Post by Swampfox »

Nice video John and that looks to be a nice buck. Very nice piece of property and hope to see more as the season roll around. :D
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